News

News

GFOA is always on the lookout for news items that will be useful for finance professionals, research that might help you do your job better, and legal and regulatory updates you need to know about. Check the GFOA news page for the updates and any relevant GFOA announcements.

In the year ended June 30, 2014, U.S. state and local-government pension investments earned the highest returns seen in three years, according to a report from Wilshire Associates, as reported by Bloomberg. Public pension returns increased by 16.9%, the best performance since fiscal 2011, when returns increased by 21.2%. Funds with more than $1 billion in assets performed best, with a median increase of 17.4%, attributed to larger alternative asset allocations.

The GFOA joined its partner national associations on an amicus, or friend of the court, brief filed by the State and Local Legal Center before the Supreme Court in the case of Comptroller v. Wynne. In this case, the Supreme Court will determine whether the U.S. Constitution requires states to give a credit for taxes paid on income earned out-of-state.

On July 15, 2014, a group of bipartisan senators introduced the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (MITFA, S. 2609), legislation that would combine the Marketplace Fairness Act that passed the Senate last year with a 10-year extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes that is set to expire November 1, 2014.

On July 24, 2014, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the City of Wilson, North Carolina, filed separate petitions asking the FCC to consider whether their states laws prohibit the deployment of high-speed broadband services in a reasonable and timely manner. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has spoken repeatedly about his desire to address state laws that prohibit or restrict municipal broadband networks. These petitions provide the chairman the opportunity to take action.

The AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) helps its members meet the challenges of performing quality audits. One significant industry the GAQC focuses resources on is audits of state and local entities. The AICPAs State and Local Governments Expert Panel (SLGEP) serves the needs of AICPA members on financial and business reporting and audit and attest matters. The Expert Panel protects the public interest by bringing together knowledgeable parties in the state and local government industry to deliberate and come to agreement on key state and local government issues.

The GFOA joined other national associations representing local governments on a letter (see below) to the Senate urging support for the Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act (MITFA, S. 2609). This legislation, introduced by a group of bipartisan senators on July 15, 2014, would combine the Marketplace Fairness Act that passed the Senate last year with a 10-year extension of the moratorium on Internet access taxes that is set to expire November 1, 2014.

Last week, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation (H.R. 5199) that would permanently raise the issuer limit on bank-qualified bonds from $10 million to $30 million. The legislation, which breathes new life into the effort to restore the annual issuer limit to $30 million, is the culmination of several months of work by GFOAs Federal Liaison Center with the offices of congressmen Tom Reed (R-NY), Randy Hultgren (R-IL), John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA).

On July 23, 2014, the SEC voted 3-2 to approve a final rule on its 2013 proposal to institute reforms to money market mutual funds. The commissions final rule contains a number of components that were included in its 2013 proposal  which the GFOA opposed and commented on in an independent letter and as part of a state and local association coalition last fall. (See both letters below.) Such provisions require institutional prime, retail, and municipal (tax-exempt) funds to maintain a floating net asset value instead of a stable NAV, which had existed previously.

Metros found to have high walkable urbanism are models for the future development patterns of many of the largest 30 U.S. metros, according to Foot Traffic Ahead, a recent study from the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business.

Geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators, and accelerators  innovation districts  are part of a new urban model, according to The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America, a new paper from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

On July 15, 2014, the House of Representatives passed the GFOA-opposed Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR 3086). The bill would permanently preempt state and local governments authority to assess taxes on Internet access and would specifically remove that authority from ten states that are currently permitted to do so under current law  Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board recently released two new exposure drafts on other postemployment benefits: one directed at employers (Accounting and Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pensions) and the other targeted at OPEB plans (Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefit Plans Other Than Pension Plans). Both EDs propose to bring accounting and financial reporting for OPEB into line with GASBs new guidance on pensions.

Today, the released a new report, Investing in Results: Using Performance Data to Inform State Budgeting, a new report from the National Association of State Budget Officers, highlights some key themes and lessons learned for using performance information in state budgeting, planning, and program management, based on state budget officer discussions on this subject as well as several state-specific case studies.

This week, the GFOA published an alert for members on the SECs MCDC initiative, which was announced by SECs Enforcement Division on March 10, 2014. The initiative provides issuers and underwriters the opportunity to self-report instances of material misstatements in bond offering documents regarding the issuers prior compliance with its continuing disclosure obligations.

Americas counties spend an estimated $20 billion-$24 billion on health insurance premiums each year, covering approximately 2.5 million county employees and nearly 2.4 million dependents, according to a new study by the National Association of Counties.

The GFOA, along with several other national associations representing local governments, sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging members to vote no on the passage of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, HR 3086. If enacted, the bill would permanently preempt state and local governments authority to assess taxes on Internet access and would specifically remove that authority from ten states that are currently permitted under current law to assess such taxes. The full House will consider the GFOA-opposed legislation during the week of July 14, 2014.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (H.R. 3086), if enacted, would cost states and localities several hundred million dollars a year. The bill would permanently preempt state and local governments authority to assess taxes on Internet access and would specifically remove that authority from ten states that are currently permitted under current law to assess such taxes. The House Judiciary Committee recently approved H.R.

The House Judiciary approved the GFOA-opposed Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, H.R. 3086, which would permanently preempt state and local governments authority to assess taxes on Internet access and pave the way for other industries to argue that they too deserve special protections from state and local taxation.